By Katie,We follow Evalina Toussaint into the mental institution of Highland Hospital. This famous hospital is rumored to be haunted and probably made the story of Zelda Fitzgerald's death more famous.
Evalina believes her story is more about Zelda than herself. How much do we agree with this? One book review considered Zelda to be a representation of all women based upon Mrs. Hodge's comment:
“But I don’t think she was schizophrenic, not for one bloody moment, pardon my French, I don’t. I think she didn’t fit in, that’s all, and they didn’t know what to do with her… She was too smart, too or-i-gin-al… That’s the case with half of them, the women that come here. They’re too privileged, too smart…”" In addition to our thoughts on this statement, what are our thoughts on Dr. Carroll?
How do we feel about Dr. Carroll's opinion of "avoiding introspection at all costs"? How do we feel about all of his "treatment" options?
Hello Ladies
ReplyDeleteWe’re in Ireland in sunshine and will remain here for another ten days or so, travelling from north to south. The Republic has just voted to amend its archaic abortion laws. Some of the anti-abortion views expressed remind me strongly of attitudes to women implied in this month’s book. I’m posting this now as I have time and opportunity. The combination of both may not come again soon. Hope you and your families are both well and happy.
The book title made me think we were about to read a science fiction novel. Now I’ve read the book, I’m not sure the title is a happy choice, describing as it does those whom Fitzgerald unfortunately terms ‘insane’. Perhaps I’m being oversensitive, but the connotations of ‘insanity’ are unpleasant. Maybe the implications of the word have changed over time. And I found the first paragraph’s claim that the story was to be about Zelda Fitzgerald to be somewhat exaggerated. She is a character in the book, just one amongst many..
More positively, we have friends who live in Asheville, and have visited the area several times. Loved it. Much of Smith’s description recreated it. And who could not enjoy New Orleans? So the various settings brought back happy memories. And the history of the treatment of Highland Hospital’s patients, including the lobotomy and shock treatment, was well researched and interesting, if rather distressing. Dr. Carroll could only work within the knowledge available to him. All the same, avoiding introspection at all costs is surely not good for any of us, particularly Dr. Carroll himself.
I found the novel way too cumbersome – so many characters moving in and out of Evalina’s unhappy life. I’m not sure what point the author is trying to make. If it is that ‘insane’ people are to be treasured, that ‘insanity’ is a treatable illness, we could have done this much more concisely and effectively. But I do take your point, Katie, that the sheer number of female characters in Highland Hospital does demonstrate that strong, clever, creative women have been classified as ‘insane’ just because they don’t fit into society’s perceptions of how women should behave
The fire, which forms the prologue and about which the opening paragraph claims the novel will provide new insights and information, was cursorily dealt with. The conclusion, waiting for Pan in New Orleans, is unsatisfactory, as much as anything because the relationship with Pan baffled me and I fail to see how he’s likely to go to New Orleans. Do we take from this that Evalina is still unwell, but that since the fire there is nowhere she can go? (How did she come to return to Highland Hospital when the relationship with Joey broke down? The mechanics don’t seem to be explained.)
So, I’m afraid I wasn’t very impressed. The beginning, life with Evalina’s mother, was really promising and lots of research and attention to detail have clearly gone into the writing of the book. Somehow, for me, it failed to live up to its potential.
Hope life is being good to you ladies.
Love to you both
Sue
Hello Ladies!
ReplyDeleteSue, Ireland sounds wonderful! How much fun you must be having! Nancy, I hope you are having some wonderful adventures too. Nothing too exciting happening here.
Sue, you and I share many of the same opinions regarding this novel. This story was hardly about Zelda or the fire. Evalina’s comings and goings at Highland seemed relatively unexplained and barely reasonable. Maybe it simply fell into the category of not knowing what to do with her. It did not seem appropriate for the Carroll’s to treat her as both a ward and patient. This relationship sounds like a severe breach of professionalism but maybe that is only by today’s standards. I think she should only have been one of those roles to the Carrolls: either patient or ward.
I certainly disagree with Dr. Carroll’s aversion to introspection. Isn’t the whole point of therapy to reflect on oneself and ones’ actions as a means to solve problems and become a better individual? How could the therapy sessions with any of the Highland patients have been effective if the patients were not allowed time to reflect on their pasts/attitudes/personalities etc.? Dr. Carroll’s other treatment methods were also rather distasteful. Not just for the fact that shocking a patient or putting them into a coma sounds physically unhealthy, but also because bottling up/ forgetting ones’ problem’s is not healthy. But as you said, Sue, the doctor could only work with the knowledge available at that time. I am grateful that we did not have to deal with too much information regarding lobotomies.
I also found the ending very dissatisfying. Pan’s character did not seem like one that would thrive in a city setting so the idea that he would come to New Orleans was unreasonable. The relationship between Pan and Evalina seemed more of a recreational situation rather than a meaningful soul mate type. Evalina claimed that Pan was her “kind” but that hardly seemed true. Pan was a much more broken individual from years of abuse, while Evalina merely had a sad life.
You bring up many good unresolved questions, Sue. Why couldn’t Evalina return to Highland? Why should she need to return to any asylum as she was a fully functional member of society? She found herself a home and a job. She obviously could take care of her basic human needs without incident. So much left unexplained. Hopefully it wasn’t too unbearable.
Thank you for another good discussion.
Katie
Hello Ladies
ReplyDeleteWe have returned from Ireland, where glorious weather made the very best of really beautiful scenery.
On my return, in a book shop I came across one of the titles I'd recommended, A Life Discarded by Alexander Masters, scheduled for February 2019. Spending some time with the novel, I don't think it is one I should have recommended. Could we replace this title with Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie? You'll be very grateful, ladies, I promise. Sorry to mess you about, Nancy. Much love to you both.
ReplyDeleteHello Ladies,
We have just returned from Sydney where we have spent some wonderful family time with Ivars mother, sister and various nieces and nephews. Nana is ninety years young and an amazing person, so fit and active, we were able to take her to the Blue Mountains for a day trip and lots of outings for coffee, such valuable time together.
Sue, I loved our time in Ireland, it is such an interesting place. Where did you visit?
You both seem to be a little unsatisfied with this months story, I am going to go against the trend and say I quite enjoyed it !
As you say Sue, the descriptions of New Orleans were very evocative of the place.
I found there were so many stories within stories and I found some were cut short before I knew what had happened to the characters. Perhaps this was intentional or perhaps Lee Smith simply tried to include to much in one novel.
Many chances for satellite stories, I especially enjoyed When Evalina spent time up in the mountains with her friend and family, singing until dawn. I really don’t know if the writing style is trying to portray the immediateness of thought, lack of consequence and difficulty of future planning that can accompany many mental illnesses or not.
In the Author Notes in my copy Lee Smith talks about her father who was a patient at Highland Hospital and also her son had spent time in and out of there as a patient, so I can only imagine she is very familiar with the place and also very familiar with dealing with people with mental illnesses.
I feel by including Evalina’s fanciful hope that Pan will join her in New Orleans at the end of the story was to highlight that even though she seemed well and able to function in society, her illness was still apart of her daily struggle, whether the insulin treatments helped her or permanently damaged her mind. Often called the silent or hidden illness, this was highlighted recently by the deaths of two high profile people who seemed to have it all, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain .
I am certainly glad our medical system has advanced beyond lobotomies and shock treatment for these people, but I do have concerns about the overprescribing of drugs as treatment now.
Sue, no problem to change your book choice, hope all is well with you both.
much love.